Course 701: Culture and Democracy

Over
the past few years this course served as an exploration of how the connections
between culture and democracy may be theorised. In addition, the course
introduced the research being done at CSCS.

In
the light of the ongoing discussions at the Centre on Cultural Studies
approaches and methods, this year (2007) the course begins with a tentative
formulation of what a Cultural Studies approach might bring to the study
of culture and democracy. It then goes on to examining texts, concepts
and arguments that are useful to substantiate the initial formulation.
In the latter part of the course CSCS faculty and a visiting scholar will
reflect on their own work, focussing on how they view the relationship
between culture and democracy in the contemporary world.

Session
1: Representation Outline of the course, framing arguments.Edward
Said, Introduction and Chapter I of Orientalism. Link found here: IntroductionChapter
one

Session
3: Nationalism and its PoliticsPartha
Chatterjee, “The Thematic and the Problematic” Link
found hereAshis Nandy,
“The Making and Unmaking of Political Cultures in India” Link
found here---, “The
Twilight of Certitudes: Secularism, Hindu Nationalism and other Masks
of Deculturation” Link
found here

Session
4: Citizen and SubjectEtienne
Balibar, “Citizen Subject” Link
found herePartha Chatterjee,
Politics of the Governed (Chapters 1 and 2) Link
found here---, “Beyond
the Nation, or Within?”
Link found hereVivek Dhareshwar
and R. Srivatsan, “‘Rowdy-Sheeters’: An Essay on Subalternity
and Politics.” Link
found here

Session
5: Caste and DemocracyRajni
Kothari, “Rise of the Dalits and the Renewed Debate on Caste”
Link
found hereGhanshyam
Shah, “Caste and Class: Social Reality and Political Representations”
Link
found hereVivek Dhareshwar,
“Caste and the Secular Self” Link
found hereSatish Deshpande,
“Exclusive Inequalities: Merit, Caste and Discrimination in Indian
Higher Education Today” Link
found here

Session
6: Cultural and rightsVeena
Das, “Communities as Political Actors: The Question of Cultural
Rights” Link
found hereFlavia Agnes,
“Minority Identity and Gender Concerns” Link
found hereSusie Tharu
and Tejaswini Niranjana, “Problems for a Contemporary Theory of
Gender” Link
found hereAnveshi
Law Committee, “Is Gender Justice only a Legal Issue? The Political
Stakes in the UCC Debate” Link
found here

Session
8: Political Culture 2: Politics of ExcessMadhava
Prasad, “Cine-Politics” Link
found here--- “Elections
as Popular Culture” (Unpublished essay. Draft will not be a part
of the course pack)Janaki Nair,
“Language and the Right to the City” Link
found hereEarl Jackson,
“Affective Affinities: The Politics of Excess in Korean Melodrama”
(Unpublished essay. Draft will not be a part of the course pack)

Session
9: Culture and democracy in the global SouthDavid
Scott, “Colonial Governmentality” Link
found hereKuan-Hsing
Chen, “Why is ‘great reconciliation’ impossible? De-Cold
War/Decolonization, or Modernity and its Tears” Link
found hereKim Soyoung,
“The Birth of the Local Feminist Sphere in the Global Era: ‘Trans-Cinema’
and yosongjang” Link
found here